I was thinking about sounds to let you know when the enemy is weak, specifically when it is reloading or out of adrenaline. Timing is a huge part of combat in NS and certain cues to attack might soften the learning curve for new players.

Interesting idea, I think it has merit and should be play tested to see how much it helps out.

well, they are there.

You CAN hear the marines reloading, and I assume reload sounds will stay in the game (no reason to take them out).

Aliens never actually 'run out' of energy, they just don't have enough for the next attack. So you could make some organic sound that tells you an alien is out of energy, but it honestly seems kinda pointless to me.

aliens don't have long range weapons out side of spores/umbra/spit/BB/parasite. When they stop firing, they are out of energy.

As for softening the learning curve? Listening to reloads is a relatively advanced skill as far as I am concerned, and shouldn't be dumbed down.

WRT the reload sound, externally, plays at the end of the reload. I'm talking about some cue for the start of the reload.

The out of energy sound would matter more for close combat(lerk-bite/fly, fade-blink/slash, skulk-bite/leap), at long range you're not going to hear the reload/out of energy anyway.



This wouldn't dumb it down in the sense that it lowers complexity. You could still start to reload to bait, then whip out your pistol/knife same as now. It just makes it easier for the new player to pick up on.

Well realistically I'd be surprised (disappointed) if marines in NS2 not only had the reload sounds as usual, but reload animations that work in time. I personally feel aliens are a different beast (haha) and that they shouldn't be giving off warning sounds when they run out of adrenaline, an alien shouldn't be remaining in a fight if it's out of adrenaline so the lack of attack or retreat should be enough given how close they have to get to pull off those attacks anyway.

I personally love the sound of a fade sharply inhaling when you give 'em a good shot to the chest. Anything that adds to the depth of sounds in NS has my vote.
Although the low adrenaline cue seems pretty useless.. it'd be interesting to have a cue for low health. Maybe a snarl for kharaa, a grunt for frontiersmen. It'd be especially interesting if they had some special walking animation.. like a limp or something..

Low health cues = no

It's much more dramatic if you decide to take a chance to kill the enemy with a last sacrifice rather then get a clear signal their just about dead.

Ammo/Exhaust cues = Yes!

The ammo part we have from marine animation and sound. Kharaa could have some exerted sound just as they hit below 10% or 5% of total adrenaline.

A reload start sound is good.

A no adrenaline sound for an alien is not. For instance, a gorge healing the hive - things would get very repetitive, very fast.

Let it have a cooldown, like 20 seconds or so before making a sound again.

Ooor disable the sound for Kharaa and let only the marines hear it, that should solve the annoyance. None cares if you are out of adren on the alien side anyway.

I second this motion

I always hated that! I couldn't tell what the alien's deal was... Is he still at 75% health, is he almost dead, is he thinking about ordering a Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich [yummy...], what!? The marines you can kinda tell, since when they are reloading you can go in for the kill, but with the aliens there is 0 clue, with the exception of them running away. But I never run away, I stay and go at them with my knife, so wtf? Visual clues or sounds would be GREAT! Doesn't have to be like a ######ing health meter like an MMORPG or anything, that wuold suck, but maybe the aliens start to sound funny, or twitch or something.... *shrug*

Generally this'd only matter for Fade/Onos

everything else dies fast.

And for fade/onos, the commander should be telling you what its life status is.

"Chase him! hes almost dead! INTO THE HIVE GOGOGOGOGO!"

Thats my opinion anyway.

How about a form of visible battle damage? Nothing extreme, just like some light open wound animations for both teams, that disappear as you regain health. So if you see an onos who is all messed up, you know hes hurting. At the same time, if that marine has slashes or bite marks on him, you know hes on his last leg too. Perhaps, also, if they were showing signs of physical damage, but without blood, that would be an indicator that their armor is all messed up, but they were medpacked (so they have full health, but no/little armor). Nothing big or anything, just some battle wounds that anyone paying attention would be able to look at and go, hmm I know hes hurt without getting too much information or exact numbers.

You mean like a blood splatter or any texture on your player model where youve been shot?

yes , but this would be hard to do - as healing is a frequent thing.....

I suppose with aliens.... every few times they get shot (not every time or itd be stupid), depending on the damage they get a blood splatter.
and the blood splatters decrease over a short time, regardless of HP. thatd work cos you could tell if an onos had been pummeled a bit recently

great idea locally

perhaps aliens could have a visual cue aswell - like the lifeform would look exhausted or pant, drool, eyes glow whatever

gorges would have a better time healing, and onos's wouldn't get blocked as much if you can see they are low on health or energy - be nice if one of the aliens could regen another's adrenaline.
(lol probably not a gorge cause 2 gorges could heal each other perpetually)